[Rferguson2]

Manchester Airport is finally award winning! And IMHO an award it really deserves – voted the UK’s WORST airport by Which magazine.

My flight today on Lufthansa from Manchester T1 to Frankfurt is a perfect illustration of just why the airport is considered so poorly.

I won’t go on complaining about the travelators on the skywalk from the train station to the terminals that have not worked since COVID (the same as the travelators in the gate pier in T1). Nor will I have a moan about the general disrepair of the place with out of order lifts and escalators everywhere you look and a general atmosphere that makes a hospital waiting room seem more appealing.

But once again, the moronic security.

I’ll set the scene.

I was flying Lufthansa Business Class so was able to avail of Fast Track security. At T1 Fast Track has a separate entrance to ‘regular’ security however once your boarding pass has been scanned and access to Fast Track verified you essentially emerge into the same security area as everyone else and a designated lane is for Fast Track. There are 13 lanes at T1 security with lane 13 being the Fast Track one. Lanes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 11 were in operation for general security, the others closed.

Once passing the Fast Track security check point I was greeted with a non moving queue of around 30 people for the Fast Track lane (13). The ‘regular’ security lane adjacent (11) was quite a bit shorter (maybe ten people) and down at lane 5 there was ZERO queue. So, I left the Fast Track queue to use the queue-less lane 5. As I approached one of the security agents who was doing I’m not sure what, put his hand up to signal ‘stop’ and the following conversation ensued.

Me: Hi, I have access to Fast Track but the line is really long and I see no queue here so I’d like to use this lane please (showing boarding pass).

Agent moron: No no you need to stay in the lane you were allocated.

Me: Well, I was allocated Fast Track as a perk of travelling business class but as you can see (pointing to lane 13) the line is huge and there is no queue here.

Agent moron: No, no, everyone needs to stay in the lane they are allocated.

Me: So, you are telling me that someone that has been allocated a perk to get through security quickly that an airline is paying you guys extra for can not use a lane where there is no queue which is free for anyone and everyone else to use?

Agent moron: (looking confused) Well, why don’t you join lane 11?

Me: You just told me we have to stick to the lane we were allocated, which is 13. Lane 11 is for general security. Why are you now saying I can use a lane for general security but not this one which has no queue?

Agent moron: it’s just how it is. (turns back).

Just to point out, this security agent had the most dead pan power tripping look on his face you can imagine, almost like one of those satirical immigration characters in a comedy sketch.

Anyway, I go join general security lane 11 which is still shorter than priority lane 13. 30 seconds later Mr Moron bellows ‘lane 11 some of you can come to lane 5 – FIVE people only FIVE people only!).

Please, please Lufthansa, re-instate your Frankfurt – Liverpool service. I will happily pay more and travel further to avoid this dump of an airport that definitely deserved it’s award of UK’s worst airport.

13 users thanked author for this post.

BPP, Inquisitive, fatbear, Jacob, Montysaurus, cwoodward, AndrewinHK, LetsFlyNow, Johnnyg, sparkyflier, AMcWhirter, esselle, YorkshireTraveller

[esselle]

Whilst I am sure Security personnel have to demonstrate proficiency at their primary task, ie stopping bad stuff getting on planes, they perhaps only have to attend the common sense aspect of the curriculum if it suits them.

A couple of years ago I was flying F in EK with my wife. We went through the Fast Track lane in T3 at LHR, and ahead of us in the line was a youngish American who clearly had not thought too hard about what was in his hand baggage. The security guy was glacially slow, removing a never ending stream of knives, giant bottles of liquid, odd looking white powder etc. This went on for about 10 minutes. I looked over to the lane next to us where a security guy stood idly by doing nothing, and asked him if I could take our trays over to him. His reply was “no, you have to stay in your chosen lane”. It was said in such a way that I did not dare challenge.

We stood for another 5 minutes or so before it was our “turn”.

[AMcWhirter]

@Rferguson2

I am sure others would support Lufthansa returning to LPL.

Unfortunately I cannot see this happening.

LH mainline concerns itself with feeding its twin hubs. Everything else is hived off to subsidiaries.

And as we know LH mainline is not in the business of carrying p-t-p travellers … its aim is to connect these travellers with its long-haul network.

I believe it is also tight on aircraft availability hence BRS-FRA was axed and LGW-FRA will follow soon.

[stevescoots]

for me to Asia flights LHR is 2.5-3 hrs drive from home (up to 4.5 on train) MAN is 3 hrs drive or 4 on train.

I would rather, and do, pay £500+ more for J ticket and fly from LHR that put up with the 1 star dump that is MAN

3 users thanked author for this post.

BPP, CheerUp, AndrewinHK

[nevereconomy]

Of course this kind of behaviour by people who hate what they do is very prevalent in the UK, but even worse in the US.
Things seem to have got worse – at the height of my travel I would pass though Manchester maybe 10 -20 times per year, always T3 and I never really had much hassle –
occasional secondary screening, but they did get a bit difficult on that after their knuckles were rapped after some lapse – cannot remember the details.
It has however always been scruffy and depressing with the out of order lifts and deactivated moving walkways. They have however done a fine job of adding so many shops
that there is nowhere left to sit in the public areas.

[Bath_VIP]

Fear not!

Manchester has a solution to all your travails.

A VR gaming escape room.

Manchester Airport launches gaming area with virtual reality escape room

Where one of the games will be the perfect airport experience as you’ve always imagined it…

[Inquisitive]

I commented about Manchester airport a couple of times earlier, so I am not surprised by RFerguson2 experience.
I only used the airport as transit passenger for my Singapore to Houston flight and back. Even that short transit experience is so bad, mainly transit security, that I hate that short experience.

The same SQ flight used Moscow before they changed to Manchester and I think few will believe that I would prefer Moscow over Manchester!

Now I use other airlines travelling via pacific just to avoid Manchester.

[Author]

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